Bill Warren

In previous articles we’ve examined different modes of store operations and talked about how we independent jewelers need to be “Evolving!” To some degree, there will always be the traditional retail operation, but we’ve also examined Studio models, Estate Jewelry Models or Departments and the use of CAD/CAM in a more custom operation.

In my last article I talked about some of the various business models I see as I visit other jewelry stores on my quest to learn and grow. In part one we talked about the use of CAD/CAM in more and more stores as well as the use of prototype mounting selling.

Over the last ten years, with the great recession and the advent of “Millennials,” my viewpoints on a great many things have changed. It has caused me to ask myself if I am “Revolving” or in other words, doing the same old traditional methods of operation in a retail jewelry store over and over again. It has also caused me to think more in the terms of “Evolving” our store’s operation from a macro or “Big Picture” approach.

Let me ask you a question - how many of you are bombarded daily with things that seem to pull you away from the important task of running your store? You know, you have three civic groups wanting you to donate an item for an auction or you’re hit up by someone wanting you to do a hole sponsorship for the latest golf tournament.

Sometime ago I was delivering a seminar to a state jeweler’s association when I struck up a conversation with one of the attending jewelers afterward. He told me how much he enjoyed my seminar on marketing for jewelers but wanted to ask a few questions.

For years I often wondered whether it was really worth my time to join one of the buying groups that all of us so often read about in the trade journals. My wife and I had a successful store, now in its 23rd year, and we’d made it just fine without being part of one. However, I did notice several of my fellow jewelers and friends becoming part of one of the “O’s” as I call it so I decided to investigate as to why.